


Secrets We Keep

by peculiarmars



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Auror Draco Malfoy, Auror Harry Potter, Case Fic, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, Hurt Draco Malfoy, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Past Sexual Abuse, Protective Harry Potter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2019-01-16 05:53:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12336783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peculiarmars/pseuds/peculiarmars
Summary: When successful Aurors' Draco and Harry are handed a case involving child abuse, some parts of Draco's childhood are dragged to the surface from where they had been so carefully buried.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys, just a quick note to say that this is going to be a long fic which deals with the aftermath of ongoing abuse and that what exactly happened to Draco will unfold as the story progresses. It's tagged as rape/noncon because this fic is going to discuss it in detail, but it doesn't happen onscreen.

Harry looked over the case file, feeling sick to the bottom of his stomach.  Dawlish had given him this case after he had solved an ongoing murder case in just three weeks. Usually he was paired with Ron, but on this case Dawlish had paired him with Draco Malfoy.

 

Which wasn't actually as much as a bad thing as Harry's teenage self would've thought. He and Draco had been in a relationship for the last year and a half, though they had never worked a case together, having agreed straight away to keep their work lives separate from the home they had been sharing for three months.

 

Draco didn't announce himself when he walked into the office Harry shared with Ron, just sunk into the chair beside Harry and started reading over his shoulder.

 

"What's Dawlish gotten us paired on?" He asked.

 cleared his throat.

"There's a case at Hogwarts. They think a boy's been, well . . ." Draco stiffened, his calm body language disappearing, as it always did on a case involving children. Those cases were always the worse, for any Auror. Even after seeing the horrors of war first hand, there was something about children in distress that got to him.

 

Draco pulled on his cloak and threw Harry's at him.

 

"Come on, then." Draco said, slipping his hand into Harry's as they floo'd to Headmistress McGonagall's office.

    

* * *

 

 

"Mr Potter, Mr Malfoy." McGonagall greeted them, not raising an eyebrow at their joint hands. They had been out to the wizarding world since they had moved, and not everyone had been so welcoming.

 

Harry held out free his hand for McGonagall to shake.

 

"Professor."

 

McGonagall smiled slightly. "That's Headmistress to you." And then the smile was wiped straight off of her face. "You've come about Julian." It wasn't a question, but Harry nodded anyway.

 

McGonagall led them down a hallway, and then turned towards the Great Hall. She then turned into another hallway and Harry realised that they were heading towards the Hufflepuff common rooms.

 

"Biscuit." McGonagall said the password and the portrait swung open, revealing a large room donned in vibrant yellows.

 

Almost immediately, Harry noticed a boy curled on an armchair in the corner of the room, squashed between two bookcases. It was difficult not to notice him. Everyone else was sitting in groups of friend, except him.

 

He looked up as McGonagall approached him, and then placed his book down heavily. He shuffled after McGonagall and followed the three of them back to the Headmistress' office.

 

"Julian, would you be more comfortable if I was in the room or if I left?" Julian shrugged, staring at the carpet. He glanced up at Harry and quickly looked back down, and for a second Harry saw the purplish bruise over his eye.

 

"Headmistress, I need to confirm some things with Professor Longbottom." Draco said professionally, excusing himself from the room.

 

Julian flopped down onto the sofa pressed against the wall of the spacious office, and Harry sat next to him, but kept his distance. McGonagall stayed standing beside her desk. Harry cleared his throat.

 

"Julian," He began delicately, "I was told by one of teachers that something happened outside of school that the Aurors needed to be informed of."

 

"He's lying."  Julian snapped instantly.

 

"Julian," McGonagall warned. Julian started jiggling his leg, his body language painting the picture of someone who was extremely nervous and upset.

 

"I need to get your side of the story, Julian." Harry said, keeping his voice as neutral as he could. "Perhaps you could tell me where you got that bruise from?" Harry knew that he was going about this the wrong way, but he didn't know what the right way was. With adults it was easier, and he had never been on a case like this before, involving children in such horrible situations.

 

Julian shrugged, looking at Harry properly for the first time.

 

"I was in a fight, with another boy. That's where the bruise came from." Harry knew Julian was lying, but wrote it in his notepad anyway.

 

"What's the boy's name?" He asked. Julian shrugged again.

 

"It doesn't matter. I don't want to get him in trouble."

 

"You won't." Harry promised, attempting to sound reassuring. Julian rolls his eyes.

 

"Yes, I will." Harry knows that he's right, but wants to deny it anyway.  "Nothing even happened." Julian insisted. Harry feels himself frown.

 

"I thought-"

 

Julian jumped up from the sofa and hurried out of McGonagall's office, making sure to slam the door behind him. Harry stared after him.

 

"Is there any point in following him?"

 

"I'm afraid not. He's been like that for days, and I'm close to sending an owl to his parents. We know something happened on his Hogsmeade trip last Saturday, and we know it wasn't a fight with another student, it couldn't of been, said student wasn't in Hogsmeade at the time. It's simply a matter of specifics that Julian won't tell us." McGonagall shook her head at him, and Harry could see how much it was eating at her. No matter the house, McGonagall cared about all her students.

 

    

* * *

 

Draco was walking back from Neville's classroom after quickly questioning him when a boy in yellow robes suddenly ran around the corner and crashed into him, making him drop his notebook.

 

"Sorry," The boy mumbled as he grabbed Draco's notebook and handed it to him. Draco realised who the boy was a knew he only had seconds before he would run off again.

 

"It's Julian, isn't it?" Draco said, holding out his hand for the boy to take. Julian stared at it for a second before he quickly shook it and then dropped his hand to his side.

 

"I'm Draco. Would you like to go for a walk on the grounds? You look a bit flustered."

 

Julian stared at him and Draco had to resist the urge to squirm. He could deal with adults staring at him, but something in Julian's gaze made him uncomfortable, not that he would ever tell Julian that. Finally Julian nodded and the pair headed off to the grounds. They walked in a relaxed silence until Julian sighed and broke it.

 

"I know why you're here." He said, deliberately not looking at Draco. He looked out over the lake instead. Draco didn't reply, waiting for him to continue. "And it's _pointless_."

 

"I'm not sure I agree." Draco said carefully, not wanting to make Julian bolt. Julian didn't, instead grabbing a stone and throwing it into the lake with a plop.

 

"What do you know?"

 

"I know that's a nasty bruise on your face, and I know that you're scared and trying to hide it. I know that you probably hate both of us, and that's okay. We're strangers that are prying into your personal life, but it's our job. We can't just let things like this slip under the radar, we would be terrible Aurors if we did."

 

Julian picked up another stone and forcibly threw it into the lake.

 

"But nothing happened! The bruise was an accident." He added.

 

"Even if it was, can you tell me who did it?"

 

Julian was silent. Draco thought he was ignoring him, but then he answered in a voice which had suddenly lost his anger.

 

"I don't want you to arrest me." He said quietly. "And don't say you wouldn't, because you would. I _know_ you would."

 

"I don't know if you don't tell me." Julian shrugged.

 

"I know the law. I would be arrested, and I don't want to go to Azkaban."

 

"Julian, I know you don't want to tell me any details, and that's fine, I'm not going to force you to. Could you tell me something, just a small detail, maybe about what they look like or where they work?"

 

"But they didn't do anything!"

 

"Julian," Draco said. "if you really have committed the kind of crime you are insinuating, then we would have to open a serious investigation. However, you haven't said that, so the only thing I have to go on is that you did something with someone and believe you would get into trouble for it."

 

"They. . . they had red hair. I met them in Hogsmeade last week."

 

Draco's brain froze, refusing to process the information he had just been told. Red hair. Hogsmeade. _I met them in Hogsmeade_.

 

"Thank you, Julian. I know it sounds patronizing, but you're very brave to tell me that." He managed to get out after a moment.

 

"I. . ." Julian trailed off. "I want to go back to the common room."

 

Draco walked Julian back to the common room, but not before giving him his personal phone number for if he wanted someone to talk to. It would most likely take an age for Julian to be comfortable enough to openly speak about what happened in Hogsmeade, but he wanted to at least try.

 

   

* * *

 

 

Back in there office Harry noticed that Draco seemed distracted. They were meant to be reading up on the case notes, except Draco had been zoning out for the past twenty minutes.

 

"Draco," Harry tried to get his attention. Draco didn't move. Harry snapped his fingers in front of his face and Draco blinked, breathing in deeply.

 

"What?"

 

"You've been zoning out for the last twenty minutes. What do you think about this case?"

 

Draco shrugged, flicking through his notes. "Julian told me that he met them in Hogsmeade and that they had red hair. He must've known them beforehand, something tells me he's known them a while."

 

"You think it's ongoing?"

 

"You don't?"

 

"I'm not sure. I know something's happened to him that he's embarrassed about. I wasn't able to get much out of him -  he clearly didn't want to talk to me."

 

"He's done something that his abuser is using against him. He told me he was worried about going to Azkaban. I think it's likely to be that he did something his abuser didn't like, or did something to another child under his abuser's watch." Draco said, clearly having thought about it in great detail.

 

"Red hair and Hogsmeade. I'll contact Dawlish and tell him to get people to hang around Leaky and look for anything suspicious." said Harry as he left the office to inform Dawlish of their plans.

 

Draco waited until Harry was gone before putting his head in his hands, fingernails digging painfully into his scalp. He refused to let Harry see him like this, refused to let Harry even suspect.

 

The case was his every childhood nightmare coming true.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco and Harry question another victim

Harry as used to long silences when Draco was thinking hard, but this was somehow different. In other cases Draco would be completely still, but also completely aware of his surroundings. Now, however, Draco was staring off into space, his leg jiggling rhythmically, not even turning his head when Harry spoke to him.

 

"Draco?" He tried for the third time. He reached across the couch and nudged him.

 

"Hm?" He murmured, tiredness evident in his voice.

 

"I said are you okay? You looked a bit distance."

 

Draco waved his hand flippantly. "Just tired, and this case. . ."

 

"I know, it's horrible, isn't it? Why would anyone hurt a child like that?" He said it more to himself than Draco, but Draco shrugged anyway. Neither of them said anything for a minute.

 

"I guess some people are just like that, you know?" Draco said it quietly, almost as if he didn't want Harry to hear it. Harry nodded, agreeing with him. He had seen more than enough horrific things to know that some people were the embodiment of evil, often with no reason other than they found pleasure in hurting people. Even knowing this, he still couldn't imagine anyone wanting to hurt a child in anyway, but especially like that.

 

   

* * *

 

 

Draco and Harry worked in a tense silence on Monday morning. However no matter how hard they worked, they still had almost nothing to build a case on Julian.

 

"We know that something happened in Hogsmeade on the weekend. I looked through some old case files and saw that another boy, named Joseph Turner, had been in St Mungos because of injuries that hinted at sexual abuse. He was seventeen at the time. He said he had met someone in Hogsmeade. It's the only one I've found that has any relation to Julian at all, and it's probably just a coincidence." Harry concluded, opening another file.

 

"So we'll find Joseph and interview him. It might be best if you do that alone, though." Draco added. Harry knew exactly why it would be easier for him to do it on his own, and he hated it. Joseph had attended Hogwarts from 1993 to 2000, and had been a Ravenclaw student in the Battle of Hogwarts. Even though Draco was an Auror now, people would never stop seeing past the mark on his arm.

 

Someone knocked outside, and then the office door swung open to reveal Dawlish, looking slightly paler than usual. Harry know something was wrong instantly -  it took a lot for the man to look even slightly off his game.

 

"St Mungos, I need you both down there. A girl's been brought in by her brother and they think she's been. .  . It looks like it could relate to Julian." Dawlish couldn't bring himself to say it, and left before either of them could ask them more. A little unprofessional, Harry thought.

 

Draco had already buttoned up his cloak and was ready to leave. The Malfoy Mask was firmly in place, and anyone who didn't know him  would have thought that the case hadn't of bothered him in the slightest. But Harry did know him. He knew that the case was taking as much as a toll on Draco as it had on him, and it had only been a day. He knew it was going to get worse before it could get better.

 

He held out his arm. "I'll Apparate us." Draco slipped his arm through Harry's, and he breathed through the pull and the push of Apparation.

 

Once in St Mungos a woman in Auror robes walked straight up to Harry.

 

"I'm Lucy Sharps, Dawlish told me you'd be coming, Mr Potter." Harry took her hand, glaring at her when she completely ignored Draco. Draco himself didn't seem to be all that bothered, but it still annoyed Harry.

 

"She's only eight, her brother brought her in last night. She had -" Lucy lowered her voice, remembering that a corridor was not a secure case to be talking about a case. "vaginal tearing. We questioned her brother, and he seems clean. I've been trying to talk to her for the last two hours, but she isn't saying anything. I don't know if you'll get anything out of her, Mr Potter, but you can try." All throughout her speech she hadn't once looked at Draco.

 

"I'd like to talk to her." Draco said suddenly, causing Lucy to widen her eyes as if she had only just noticed he was there.

 

"No offence," She said with disdain "but I doubt you'd be very good with her."

 

Draco raised an unbothered eyebrow. "Dawlish called us down here, so I have believe I am not as much as a terrible Auror as you believe, Sharp. And evidently, you weren't very good either." He strolled past her without a care, almost making Harry smile. On any other case like this, he thought.

 

   

* * *

 

 

Given that Draco had had success with Julian and Harry had not they agreed that Draco would talk to Emma alone at first.

 

A little girl with curly blonde hair was sitting in the middle of the bed, an older boy reading a book to her. " 'You're interfering with the reception, look.' Said Alexander. I twigged that he was deliberately distracting him. I grinned -' Oh, hello." The boy looked up from the book. "You're here to talk to Emma? I'm Toby, her brother." The room was absent apart from them, so Draco assumed that Emma and Toby's parents weren't around. Toby looked to be around eighteen, old enough to legally be Emma's guardian.

 

"I'm Draco, I'm here to speak to you." He spoke to Emma. The girl glanced at him and then at Toby, already looking defensive.

 

"Would it be easier for me to wait outside?" Toby asked. Draco nodded.

 

"If you would, please." Toby smiled at Emma and then left them to their privacy. Draco sat down on the edge of Emma's bed, careful to keep his distance.

 

"Hello, I'm Draco." He held out his hand. Emma took it hesitantly.

 

"Hi," She said quietly. She stroked over the fur on the tiger toy in her arms, looking at Draco's chin and not his eyes. Draco didn't mind.

 

"Whose this?" He asked, pointing to the tiger.

 

"Tigger." She said.

 

"It's nice to meet you too, Tigger." Draco did a small wave, eliciting a small smile from Emma.

 

"Does Tigger have any friends?" Emma did a small nod.

 

"Not here. He has some at home, though."

 

"He does?"

 

"Yeah." Emma said, "He has Winnie and Eeyore. But they. . . They couldn't come. They had to stay at home."

 

"To look after the house while you and your brother were away?"

 

"Yeah." Draco sensed that it wasn't an outright lie, but it wasn't exactly the truth. There was something Emma wasn't telling him about her toys, but Draco knew he wouldn't be able to coax it out of her all in one go.

 

"Do you have any pets?" It was a neutral enough topic to get Emma comfortable with him. Emma nodded again.

 

"I have a hamster called Carrot. I had a cat, too, but he died." A downcast look overtook her chubby face.

 

"I'm sorry about your cat, Emma." Draco said sincerely. "Is your hamster friendly?"

 

"Sometimes. But if you stick your fingers in his cage then he thinks that its food and bites and sometimes he pees in my hand, but he's still nice. He likes to run around in his ball a lot. Do - Do you have any pets?" She asked, catching him off guard slightly. He hadn't expected her to ask him questions so quickly. Not that it was a bad thing. The more comfortable she was the better.

 

He smiled kindly. "I used to have peacocks at the house I lived in when I was younger."

 

"Peacocks are the colourful ones, aren't they?"

 

"They boys are. The girls aren't and are a brownie sort of colour, so they blend in and aren't spotted by foxes." He explained. Emma wrinkled her nose.

 

"The boys are a bit stupid, then." She commented. Draco laughed lightly.

 

"They are, a bit." He agreed. A comfortable silence settled between them.

 

"Do you know why your brother took you here, Emma?" Draco asked after a moment, keeping his voice deliberately soft. Emma shrugged, and Draco could see that she knew.

 

"There was something in my knickers." She whispered eventually.

 

"Do you know why, Emma?" Emma's fingers tightened on Tigger.

 

"I'm not -. I. . ." Emma stopped talking. "I don't want to talk about it." She said in a hoarse whisper.

 

"That's okay. You don't have to talk if you don't want to." Draco reassured her. "But whoever hurt you can't hurt you again."

 

Emma fiddled with Tigger's tail. "Ever?"

 

"I promise."

 

Emma looked as if she was about to say something, but decided not to.  "I don't want to talk about it." She repeated and Draco knew that questioning her further was pointless.

 

   

* * *

 

 

"Good morning, I'm Auror Potter." Harry always thought that introducing himself to people on cases was a bit ridiculus - everybody knew who he was. He did it anyway.

 

"You're Toby Clark, correct?"

 

"Yes, that's me."

 

"And you're nineteen and your sisters legal guardian?"

 

"Yes. My parents died in a car accident a year and a half ago." He added.

 

"Can you explain to me why you took your sister to hospital last night?"

 

"It was nine and I was just going through some clean laundry when I noticed something on one of Emma's underwear. There was a stain on it, and I knew it had to be blood. Emma knows how to do laundry and I thought that she had started her period and was embarrassed."

 

"Why did that prompt you to take her to St Mungos?"

 

"I woke her up to ask about it and she became completely hysterical. She started crying and said I wasn't supposed to know. My parents, before they died, had talked over that stuff with her so I didn't understand why she was so upset. I asked why she was crying and -" Toby became choked up and paused for a second before continuing determindly "- she said that if she told then me and Carrot, her hamster, were going to die. So I took her here and the healer that saw her said that she had tearing in her-" Toby wiped at his eyes. "vagina." He finished.

 

"Can you think of anyone that might've done this to Emma?" Harry kept his voice as calm as he could.

 

"No one at all."

 

"Thank you, Toby." Harry said. He got up to leave and Toby grabbed his sleeve.

 

"You'll find the man that did this, won't you? He won't go free?"

 

"We'll find him, Toby. I can assure you off that."

 

   

* * *

 

"It's not the brother." Was the first thing Draco said to Harry when they were back in their office. They were both slumped over a desk, the day wearing heavily on them.

 

"I didn't think it was. Did Emma say anything to you?"

 

"It's more of what she didn't say. She knows exactly who has been hurting her. They threatened her when she was at home, hence her thinking that Toby was going to be hurt and leaving her other toys there to 'defend' the rest of the house. She said that her cat had died, though I'm not sure if it's related to her abuser or if it was just a coincidence."

 

"Do you think it could be related to Julian?"

 

Draco ran a hand through his slicked-back hair. "I don't really think we know enough about each cases to make that connection yet. Though it certainly is odd that both cases surfaced at the same time."

 

"So we could have serial pedophile on our hands?" Harry sighed half sad and half angry. "Great." Draco gave him a sympathetic look.

 

"At least they have good Aurors on the case. Sharps and the rest of them were going about it the wrong way. You can't just ask for details on sexual abuse with no warning, especially on a child of Emma's age. She's been threatened and they think she's just going to tell them straight away." Draco sighed as if he was fed up of humanity's stupidity.

 

"You know a lot about these things. Have you worked on case like this before?" Harry queried. Draco was silent for a moment.

 

"Have you contacted Joseph Turner yet?" Draco abruptly changed the subject.

 

"Not yet-"

 

"Well you should do it now. The sooner the better." Draco waved his hands. "I'm going to go get a coffee, want one?" Harry barely had enough time to answer before Draco had left the room.


	3. Chapter 3

It couldn't of been past two in the morning when a loud buzzing noise interrupted Harry's fitful sleep. He blearily ran his hand over his bedside cabinet. He grabbed his phone and flipped up the casing, blinking confusedly when the screen was dead from lack of battery. Next to him Draco groaned and grabbed his own mobile, one that he barely used as he preferred the traditional way of communicating with owls, no matter that a phone call was quicker, and clicked the green  button.

 

"Hello?" He said, voice thick with sleep. Harry couldn't hear anything from the other person, but Draco's eyes widened and he scrambled out of bed. "Yes, have you got your wand on you? Okay, cast a spell. Yes, I know it's illegal, you won't get in trouble because I'm telling you to. I'll trace you and come as soon as I can, okay?" He threw the phone down on the mattress.

 

"What's -" Draco began answering before Harry could even finish the sentence.

 

"Julian called. He's lost in some muggle place, and I said we'd pick him up. I'm too tired to Apparate properly." Harry jumped out of bed with him and grabbed his coat from inside his wardrobe while Draco knotted his cloak together. They hurried down the stairs, only pausing to shove their feet into their boots.

 

Draco rattled off directions while Harry followed them until he pulled up in front off a block of flats.

 

Julian was sitting on a bench, looking down at his feet. Harry didn't need to see his face to know he had been crying. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a coat that looked far too big for him. In the back of his mind Harry wondered where he had gotten the clothes from; Julian was pureblood and tended not to mix with muggles much. The answer to that reason was probably the same as to why he was alone outside a block of muggle flats at half past two in the morning.

 

Julian looked up at the car and practically leaped off the bench and ran to it, yanking open the car door and slamming it shut behind home. Even with the coat he was shivering.

 

"Julian-"

 

"You gave me your number so I thought I could talk to you!" Julian burst out, clearly thinking that Draco was going to be angry.

 

"I did and you can, but you need to tell us why you're outside a muggle apartment block at nearly three in the morning."

 

Julian was silent for a moment. He watched the cars whizz past the window before he answered.

 

"I can't say." He said anxiously, as if Draco would snap at him and tell him he was lying. Draco glanced at Harry and gave a curt nod.

 

"Okay, we'll take you to our place. But we will have to tell Hogwarts, you understand?"

 

"I understand." Julian said miserably. He was silent for the rest of the car journey.

 

"I'll call McGonagall," Harry offered. He knew that Julian was more comfortable around Draco, so he left the room to give them some privacy.

 

Draco slung his cloak over the back of a chair. Julian did the same. He was wearing a red polo top underneath, a size to small for him. Faded bruising, in the shape of finger marks, ran up his left arm. Draco pretended he didn't notice. He busied himself making hot chocolate the muggle way. Julian would need it if the way he was shivering was anything to go by.

 

"How'd you know I like hot chocolate?" Julian asked as Draco handed him a steaming mug.

 

"Who doesn't?" Draco replied, blowing on the hot liquid. They sipped in silence until Harry came into the kitchen with  a letter in his hand. He handed it to Julian. Julian tore it open and Draco watched as his eyes widened in shock.

 

"What is it?"

 

"H-Hogwarts is suspending me." Julian said, his face flushed red and his eyes brimming with tears. "They think I've broken too many rules and they don't want me there anymore."

 

"That's not true!" Harry said immediately. "They're suspending you until they can figure out how you keep managing to slip out and get into danger. They feel that you would be safer at home with your parents."

 

"I _need_ to go to Hogwarts!" Julian cried. "I can't learn things at home."

 

"Julian," Draco said in the gentlest voice Harry had ever heard from him, "are you safe at home?" Julian shrugged and Draco saw that he was waging an internal war with himself. He wanted to tell them, but the threat of Azkaban was holding him back.

 

"I can try to get McGonagall to reconsider, but it might take a few days. The Ministry wants you back with your parents and accounted for as soon as possible. We're supposed to Apparate you to our office and floo you back to your house."

 

Draco watched Julian carefully. As soon as Harry had mentioned taking him back home, it was as if all the fight had drained out of him. He placed the half-full mug on the counter and held out his arm.

 

"Are you taking me now or next week?" He snapped, and then clearly regretted it. Draco took Harry's other hand and they Apparated to Harry's office.

 

A man and a woman, along with a girl aged around eight wearing Teletubby pyjamas.

 

"Oh, Julian." The woman sighed. Julian clutched his elbows, his shoulders hunched.

 

"Hi," He said quietly.

 

"Hi?" Julian's father said furiously. "You sneak out of Hogwarts while they're doing everything they can to keep you safe, and all you can say is 'Hi'?

 

"Mr Byrne," Draco interrupted. "Hogwarts and I believe Julian would be safer if he remained at home until the investigation is properly underway. It is not a punishment. His work will be sent to him, and he will be allowed to return as soon as possible."

 

Mr Byrne just shook his head and clasped Julian's shoulder. His face softened, and Draco mentally crossed him off of a list of possible abusers.

 

As Julian stepped into the floor, Draco called after him;

 

"You have my number!" Julian nodded and then vanished into green flame.

 

   

* * *

 

 

Draco and Harry slept until noon, exhausted from the previous night's events. They had a lazy afternoon, with Harry cooking lunch (technically it was breakfast, or 'brunch' as Draco called it) and Draco reading the Prophet and pointing out silly articles. Harry's personal favourite one about him had been 'Is The Boy Who Lived Pregnant?' written by a very desperate Rita Skeeter.

 

It was around four pm when the floo lit up and Dawlish stuck his head through. Draco and Harry had been curled up on the couch, and they both jumped when Dawlish's voice came out of nowhere.

 

"Draco, Emma wants to speak to you, and Toby wants to speak to you, Harry. I'm linking your floo to their address now."

 

"We'll be there ASAP." Harry called.

 

Five minutes later Draco and Harry were stepping out of the floo hand in hand. Emma was waiting for them, this time with Eeyore cuddled to her chest. Toby looked relieved when they appeared.

 

"Hi, Draco." Emma said quietly. Draco gave her a smile.

 

"Good afternoon, Emma."

 

Emma glanced at her brother as if she was waiting for something. Toby nodded slightly and Emma took Draco's hand and began guiding her up the ornate staircase to her bedroom. Her room was unlike the rest of the house. Traditional Victorian wallpaper covered the walls of the staircase, but Emma's bedroom was painted a pale pink and decorated with stick-on butterflies. She had a pile of books on the floor, one of them _The Story of Tracey Beaker: The Dare Game_ , _The Time Travellers Wife_ , _The Hounds of the Baskervilles_. An impressive collection for an eight year old.

 

"Some of them used to be Mummy's." Emma said when she saw Draco looking. "So they're mine now." She was standing next to a cage which had tubes extending out of the ends.

 

"Is that where Carrot lives?" Draco asked. Emma nodded.

 

"Do you want to see?" Draco nodded. Emma unlatched the cage door and tapped a small wooden house in the corner. A few seconds later a small ginger hamster crawled out, his cheeks stuffed. Emma picked him up and placed him in Draco's palm.

 

"He won't bite." She assured him. Carrot ran along Draco's hands, sniffing them every now and then. By this point he was sitting down on Emma's rug, Emma surrounded by her toys opposite him. "He likes you."

 

"I'm honoured," Emma giggled. Then she turned serious.

 

"I wanted to. Say. About things. That happened." She struggled. Draco waited patiently for her to find her voice.

 

"Why don't you start at the beginning?" Emma rubbed Eeyore against her cheek and swallowed.

 

"It was a sweet shop." She whispered. "Toby wanted to buy me some. I choose jelly beans and they were the one who served me. Nothing happened then but, a little later, Toby wanted to go into a robe shop and I didn't want to so I stayed outside the sweet shop and They starting talking to me and They said they were on their break and They had a cigarette and I said I didn't like the smell and so H-" Emma clapped a hand over her mouth, seeming to think she had gone to far.

 

"It's okay, Emma, They can't get you here." Draco promised as he leaned around her to put Carrot back in his cage.

 

"They can." She mumbled into Tigger. "They killed my cat. He suddenly got sick and coughed up his insides."

 

"Why was it your fault?" Draco asked gently. Emma shrugged, suddenly evasive.

 

"They told me to do something and I didn't want to. They said I was bad and bad children get punished. Tom coughed his insides up the next day."

 

"Your brother put more wards on the house since, and so have Aurors. They won't be able to get through without getting caught. You're safe, Emma."

 

"But what if-" Emma cut herself off.

 

"What if what?"

 

"What if they don't get in trouble? Toby was talking to me and he said They forced me to do it and They didn't at first and so it doesn't count because I didn't know it was bad at first." Emma said in a rush.

 

"They knew. The person was older than you and took advantage of you, Emma. It wasn't your fault you didn't know it was bad. It was their fault because _They_ knew, do you get it?"

 

Emma sniffled. "I-I guess. But-but I don't want to talk about it anymore. Not today."

 

"That's completely fine," Draco said as he wondered what Harry and Toby were talking about downstairs. "Why don't you show me more of your toys? You certainly have a lot of them."

 

 

* * *

 

 

The pieces of the puzzle were joining together in his mind to create a horrible, terrifying picture. As much as he wanted to be wrong, he knew he was right. He only needed one more scrap of evidence before his past came back to haunt him.


End file.
